From the archive, 22 June 1985: Police turn hippy camp into no-go area

'Earlier determination to visit the henge gave way to a suggestion that 'the stones themselves are unimportant. The people and the spirit are here'.' Photograph: Getty

Police sealed off the hippy camp site at Bratton Castle, Wiltshire, last night, allowing people to leave the site. No one, including journalists, was being allowed in. Earlier, sodden and sliding on mud after a night of heavy rain, about 3,500 hippies decided not to visit Stonehenge for the summer solstice after all.

Mr Clive Soley, the Labour home affairs spokesman, said that he was appalled at the latest moves being taken against them. Mr Soley and the National Council for Civil Liberties said that the blanket road blocks were unlawful. Police had no power to stop cars without reasonable grounds for believing that an offence would be committed by their occupants, said Ms Marie Staunton the council's legal officer. Drivers' appearances did not constitute such grounds.

The sealing of the camp came after a closure order on the Westbury white horse, a Bronze Age monument beside the site. Like the earlier order closing Stonehenge until Sunday, it was made by English Heritage, the historic monuments quango, and by Wiltshire county council. Signs announcing the monument's closure were placed at the camp site. There were angry scenes between police and several dozen hippies in a narrow lane leading to the site when it became clear that the police intended to prevent anyone leaving the camp from returning.

The hippies claimed that they were being "starved out", unable to collect water or buy food from Bratton village. Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, chairman of English Heritage, said last night that his aim was to protect the white horse. As far as he knew "We have not asked the police to do anything." He had not intended that lanes leading to the camp should be sealed. Police said they were merely enforcing the English Heritage order.

Mr Soley said: "I am extremely concerned that journalists are being banned from the site." English Heritage and the Ministry of Defence, which owns the land of the camp, earlier went to the high court to seek an eviction order. The action was adjourned until Monday to give the hippies time to appear in court.

By daybreak it was clear that nature had made the desire for a further confrontation distinctly mushy. Earlier determination to visit the henge as "the place where we baptise our children" gave way to a suggestion that "the stones themselves are unimportant. The people and the spirit are here." There had been other factors besides the weather. A police helicopter flew low over the camp, making pass after pass with a powerful spot lamp. A group sat huddled round a radio tuned to the police communication channel. It told of cars checked with the Swansea licensing centre and the police national computer, and of names and addresses of those stopped on the road. Police ran through a questionnaire with drivers stopped at road blocks around Stonehenge . A police spokesman said that the checks provided a lot of intelligence.

The 50- or 60-strong group "pagans for peace", which had marched to Stonehenge from London, was allowed as far as the perimeter fence after signing an undertaking that it would not start a festival. Wiltshire police said that three additional forces and 1,045 of their own men had been on duty during the night, with further reserves on standby.

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